This invention generally relates to a process for forming a visible image on a substrate such as paper, film, transparency, or the like, and more particularly to a process wherein the image is formed on a virgin hard copy output media consisting of a standardized array of pixel sites each composed of at least one color element or colored sub pixel covered by an opaque layer, the image being formed by changing predetermined portions of the opaque layer to render or make selected portions of the underlying color elements or sub pixels visible.
Currently, the known hard copy output printers are designed around three technologies: (1) thermal, (2) inkjet, and (3) LED/laser technology. Like zero-graphic copy machines, the basis of the printing process is to start with a blank or white sheet of virgin hard copy output material. Each technology then uses an additive process to generate the desired output color at the appropriate pixel site on the output material by essentially adding or replicating the process a multiple number of times for each pixel site. For color copies, each desired color at each pixel site is typically the result of multiple "prints" at each pixel site. Although sometimes a discrete color is formed as in the inkjet process and therefore color addition is once with respect to inkjet printing, more often printing must occur more times to generate the required final pixel color from the primary inkjet colors. With respect to thermal printing, the printing process at each pixel site is a successive additive process (color subtractive for up to three to four colors). As a result, the entire process is time consuming since the printer needs to change donor material for each color printed for the thermal process or requires a repetitive printing at each pixel site for LED/laser or inkjet processes. Due to the creative pixel nature, all printed pixels are uniquely formed and therefore the quality of each pixel must be controlled with resulting overall quality being the result of the worst case pixel. This is especially true on photographic prints, since the eye is an excellent Fourier transform and picks up small artifacts in an easy manner. As a result, the known printing processes require a complex and therefore costly end user printer. In addition, as higher and higher densities are desired, the time to print and the cost/complexity of the end user printer increases substantially.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a new image forming or printing process which reduces cycle time and increases resolution, yet which allows for a lower cost, less accurate but more robust end use printer or image forming device in which the quality of each pixel printed or formed is virtually identical.